Mollie Turns 4!!!

 We had quite the weekend!  First, on Saturday, we celebrated Elly's big day of being adopted. And on Sunday, Mollie had a birthday!  She turned four and we celebrated with her favorite--a chocolate cake!!

Mollie marvels at the thought "Wow, all this for me?!!"  Not quite Mollie, you have to share some of your cake and ice-cream with the rest of us, but the gifts and special day are yours alone!!

Mollie was quite excited.  Earlier in the day, several of us heard her singing "Happy Birthday Mollie!!"  We all thought it so cute, of course!  You're going to love her video!  She had the same problem Emma had--just couldn't wait til we were done singing to blow out the candles!  Hey, the sooner you blow them out, the sooner you get to dig into that cake, right Mollie?!!

As is traditional here, the birthday girl cuts the cake--which she so happily did!

Then she got to eat some of it!

I think she enjoyed it, what do you think?!!

There's always plenty of gifts to open too!

Toys that move :)

And toys that MAKE NOISE!!  Wow!!  Emma got electronic drums, Mollie got an electronic guitar.  They'll be making some beautiful music!

Elise enjoys some ice-cream.

Elizabeth too!

Emma thinks we should have more celebrations! She surely likes cake and ice-cream!

Holly too!

And Sylvia looks pretty happy too!

Saying Good-bye

One of the hardest parts of our job is saying good-bye to one of our girls!  They are each so special that parting is never easy when you've loved and cared for them so long.  Though new girls come after they leave, it is never a replacement--no one could replace any one of these special little ones!  They are all unique, even though some may share similarities, not one is alike--that's precisely how He made us!!

Each girl gets a going away celebration! Similar to a birthday around here, they get to choose some of their favorite foods, cake and ice-cream!

Elly loved her panda cake (though looked to me more like a snowman as it wasn't as good as the display)!!

Though Elly isn't usually a big cake fan, often choosing to skip cake and eat ice-cream only, this time she

chose to eat two pieces in celebration!!  She was being a bit silly and had two bowls and spoons!  Elly's a spunky girl with a lovely personality.

Yes, she even ate with two spoons!

Later in the day, we began our good-byes.  Though everyone looks happy in the pictures, there were a few tears when the actual time came for her to leave.

Elizabeth and Elly

Elise and Shawna with Elly

 

Holly with Elly

Farewell Elly and Welcome Our 2 Newest Girls

On Sunday we took one last photo of the Forever Home girls.  Things were about to change drastically!  Elly was leaving that evening to go meet her forever family and in just two days, we were getting two new girls.

Meet one of our newest Forever Home girls!  Her English name is yet to be determined, but soon I'm sure!!

This is now the youngest of the Forever Home girls, only a couple month's behind Mollie.  She'll be four in December!

Sisterly Love

Lovely Weather

The Looooong Ride Home

Giant Hotdogs?!

With a family of 10, we often buy in larger quantities.  Recently we bought some bologna and when it arrived, Holly wondered what this was.  Being rather silly, one of the older girls told her it was a giant hotdog when she asked what it was.  Holly innocently believed it and thought "Wow, how cool!!"  Of course, we told her otherwise but I'm sure she'll still love it anyway!  There's very few foods she doesn't like.  In fact, she often tells us how good we cook. Such a nice compliment.  Having eaten orphanage food all her life, it probably is quite an improvement--more variety and different foods and flavors she's never had.

Lunch meats are terribly hard to get here and if you do find them in Beijing, they are quite expensive.  Therefore we've decided to try some online and they delivered them right to our door.  Well............almost to our door. The delivery guy doesn't like to scale the 6 flights of stairs so he calls and asks us to come down to get our packages :)

A Little Trampoline Time

Napping With Friends!

One minute we're playing with our baby dolls, the next we're fast asleep!  That's what happens when you skip a nap to enjoy an afternoon birthday party!

Emma Turns 5!!!

On the 15th, Emma turned 5 years old!  We celebrated with a birthday party at the Forever Home.  I have to tell you, this isn't the first time the candles were lit!!  As soon as they were lit the first time, I didn't even get a chance to take a picture when she blew them all out at once!  She knew exactly what to do after the candles were lit, but forgot one little detail--wait until we sing "Happy Birthday" first Emma!!  You'll have to see the video below.  That is the 2nd time we lit them and she still couldn't wait for the song to be done before blowing them out :)  She's such a cutie!!

As is traditional here, she cuts the cake as Elizabeth helps.

Elly doesn't care much for cake but sure enjoyed the ice-cream!

Holly thought they were both pretty yummy!

Sylvia, well......needn't we even ask?!  Her smile tells all, doesn't it?!

Mollie too loves chocolate cake but didn't particularly want her picture taken--she was too busy enjoying her chocolate cake to take a picture!!

Emma LOVES chocolate cake and ice-cream too!

This was one of her presents.  You know how the girls all love to dress up.  

Another favorite of Emma's is play phones!

We actually got her an electronic drum that she can play and plays music too.  She LOVED IT!!

Celebrating 200+ Adoptions!!

On Friday, New Day had 3 children leaving--one of which will be our 200th adoption!! It was an exciting day that we felt deserved celebrating!

The 3 children leaving are pictured about, Alex, Evie, and Cora.

We all celebrated together and had a small ceremony.  Holly and all the other kids really enjoyed the balloons.

Mollie, looking so serious, wonders if she can run and play now!

Emma and Sylvia to wait patiently with their preschool class for the fun to begin.

Elly's especially excited knowing that her turn will likely be next to go to America!

After the ceremony, all the kids got to sign the banner commemorating our 200th adoption!

Bear Hugs

One day a group visited the foster home and Sylvia came home with this big huge bear!  It's bigger than she is!

Any doubt she's thrilled with her new bear?!!

She sleeps with it at night and she loves to hug it....or does it hug her?!

Flexible Happy Emma!

Hey, can you do this?!!  Emma is really flexible :) She does this sort of thing all the time!

Oh, and she's a pretty happy girl too!!

Sandbox Fun

All kids seem to love playing in the sand, but boy do they get dirty doing it!

Mollie and Emma work together making something exciting!

Elly just has fun digging :)  Sand is unique and fun and feels so cool between your fingers and toes :)

Sylvia wonders where the other part of the dump truck went!  How can a gal move the sand without the truck part?!